"...the Imagination (or love, or sympathy, or any other sentiment) induces knowledge, and knowledge of an 'object' which is proper to it..."
Henry Corbin (1903-1978) was a scholar, philosopher and theologian. He was a champion of the transformative power of the Imagination and of the transcendent reality of the individual in a world threatened by totalitarianisms of all kinds. One of the 20th century’s most prolific scholars of Islamic mysticism, Corbin was Professor of Islam & Islamic Philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the University of Teheran. He was a major figure at the Eranos Conferences in Switzerland. He introduced the concept of the mundus imaginalis into contemporary thought. His work has provided a foundation for archetypal psychology as developed by James Hillman and influenced countless poets and artists worldwide. But Corbin’s central project was to provide a framework for understanding the unity of the religions of the Book: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. His great work Alone with the Alone: Creative Imagination in the Sufism of Ibn ‘Arabi is a classic initiatory text of visionary spirituality that transcends the tragic divisions among the three great monotheisms. Corbin’s life was devoted to the struggle to free the religious imagination from fundamentalisms of every kind. His work marks a watershed in our understanding of the religions of the West and makes a profound contribution to the study of the place of the imagination in human life.

Search The Legacy of Henry Corbin: Over 800 Posts

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

A Dream Interpreted Within Dream

A Dream Interpreted Within a Dream: Oneiropoiesis and the Prism of Imagination (Zone Books, 2011), Elliot Wolfson

Wolfson's own summary of the book can be found here.

The publication of any book by Wolfson is an event.

On Wolfson & Corbin, see this earlier post.

Thursday, December 22, 2011

All the World an Icon, again

A really lovely bit of marketing for my forthcoming book thanks to IndieBound can be read HERE.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Massignon, Corbin, Zambrano


Experto extremeño: Zambrano advirtió que Occidente iba hacia su suicidio   Madrid/Merida, 21 dic (EFE).- "Hoy, leyendo a Louis Massignon, he comprendido que Occidente avanza hacia su suicidio". Esta frase que ahora suena premonitora la escribió a comienzos de los años setenta la pensadora María Zambrano, Premio Cervantes de las Letras 1988 y cuyas Obras Completas ha comenzado a editar Galaxia Gutenberg... MORE  Also this, in French.

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Edge of Empires

Edge of Empires: Pagans, Jews, and Christians at Roman Dura-Europos
New York University
September 23, 2011-January 8, 2012


Image: Drachma of the Sasanian King Shapur I, with Zoroastrian Fire Altar.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Tarkovsky & Ibn Arabi ?

If there is anyone among the readers of this blog who can help Javid Anwar in his search please contact him via phone or email -

Looking for a PhD position
Project: Cinema and the Intermediate image; Perceiving the Invisible in the Visible

This is an ontological study of cinema and it focuses on what lies beyond the fast moving images. In cinema movement happens in the imaginative realm of the observer. But the realistic perception of cinema, well-articulated by its staunch exponent Sergei Eisenstein, does not consider the inner realm and they fail to beyond cinema as an episteme to its very ontological roots. The realistic perception of cinema hits roadblock, when we study film makers like Andrei Tarkovsky, Bresson, Majid Majidi and Kirostami etc, whose visions have deeper inner significations? Can we approach their work with an exoteric modality? If it has only an exoteric meaning, what is the significance of cinema in general? In this context the cinema demands a deeper analysis by combining both the ways. Tarkovsky and his films have been foregrounded in this study, though many filmmakers in his ilk are under its purview. The best way to reconstruct the meaning of Tarkovsky’s art is to know the ways human imagination works and for that one has to go beyond the limits of human reason. And the study seeks the help from the universe of Ibn Arabi’s thought to reclaim the potential of imagination to reconstruct the meaning of cinema in such a way that there are more to see in moving images than we actually see.
Contact javidanwar@gmail.com
Mobile +91 9446393396

Sunday, December 18, 2011

SOCIETY FOR NEOPLATONIC STUDIES CONFERENCE

CALL FOR PANELS:
THE TENTH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR NEOPLATONIC STUDIES CONFERENCE, 
JUNE 20-23, 2012, 
CALGLIARI, SARDINIA

Saturday, December 17, 2011

ASE 2012 Conference Call for Papers

ASE 2012 Conference Call for Papers

Association for the Study of Esotericism
Fourth International Conference
Call for Papers: Esotericism, Religion, and Culture
July 19-22, 2012 

Friday, December 16, 2011

School of Spiritual Psychology

The School of Spiritual Psychology
Directors: Robert Sardello & Cheryl Sanders-Sardello

Based in the lives & works of C.G. Jung, Henry Corbin, James Hillman, Rudolf Steiner & Sri Aurobindo



Thursday, December 15, 2011

Freer & Sackler Archive

Freer & Sackler Gallery Squeeze Imaging Project -

The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives hold a significant collection of 393 squeezes from ancient archaeological sites in the Near East. A squeeze is a series of sheets of paper that are layered on top of each other and moistened to create a wet pulp. This substance is pressed upon the inscriptions, creating a paper mold and capturing the impressionistic writing for a 3-dimensional negative effect. (See the Squeeze Making tab for more information). The inscriptions typically contain information on the ancient culture's history, now preserved in the squeezes. As they are often made of paper, squeezes can be fragile, which limits their accessibility and jeopardizes the historical data they hold.
The squeezes in the Archives, Ernst Herzfeld papers date from 1911-1934. The squeezes range from very high-grade, robust paper to low-grade cigarette paper. Over time, the squeezes have been transported around the world, handled and stored in ways not approved by F|S archivists, and have suffered from various issues that affect all paper products. The squeezes contain Arabic script, Middle Persian, and Cuneiform impressions from archaeological sites: Bastam, Isfahan, Rayy, Samarra, Shiraz, Sunghur, Taq-i Bustan, Tus, Sarpul, Pasargadae, Persepolis, Naqsh-i Rustam, and Paikuli. The Herzfeld papers have been vital in the research of these sites, and the squeezes he created for temporary reference have helped scholars access information from monuments that for many reasons may no longer be available.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

IISMM January Bulletin

IISMM Bulletin Janvier 2012

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

7ème JOURNEE HENRY CORBIN 17 December - corrected


7ème JOURNEE HENRY CORBIN
Henry Corbin et le débat contemporain en sciences humaines
le samedi 17 décembre 2011
à l’Ecole Normale Supérieure, 45 rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris

*Amphithéâtre RATAUD*

Matinée
Président de séance : Leili Anvar-Chenderoff (INALCO)
9h 30 : Christian JAMBET (Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes), « Henry Corbin et Louis
Massignon ».
10 h 30 : Alexandre AHMADI (psychiatre-psychothérapeute jungien) «Jung et Corbin. Monde
de l'Inconscient et Monde Imaginal »
11 h 30 : Manuel QUINON (Université de Strasbourg) : «Henry Corbin et Gilbert Durand».

Déjeuner au restaurant « Mauzac », 7 rue de l’Abbé de l’Epée, 75005 Paris

Après-midi

Président de séance : Philippe Faure (Université d’Orléans)
14 h 30 : David BISSON (Université Rennes I), «Henry Corbin et Gershom Scholem »
15 h 30 : Maria SOSTER (chercheur indépendant), « Aperçus sur des textes corbiniens dans
les années trente »
17h30-19h Cocktail au « Mauzac »

Le secrétaire général, Pierre Lory

Friday, December 9, 2011

La figure de la Sophia, chez Henry Corbin



I am pleased to be able to provide an audio file of 
Daniel Proulx's essay  

La figure de la Sophia, chez Henry Corbin


Presented at
Colloque transdisciplinaire et international
Femme, Eros et Philosophie :
Identité féminine, bio-pouvoir du discours et éros philosophique 
6 et 7 décembre 2011
Louvain-la-Neuve

The full text of an edited version will be available in a few weeks.

Wednesday, December 7, 2011

Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art



The mission of the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art
is to improve the quality of people's lives through the
study, understanding and appreciation of
Islamic arts and cultures.

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Femme, Eros et Philosophie


On the evening of the first day note that Daniel Proulx will present: La figure de la Sophia, chez Henry Corbin (see abstract at the bottom of this post)

 Colloque transdisciplinaire et international Femme, Eros et Philosophie CFEP Programme Complet-Version Officielle

La figure de la Sophia, chez Henry Corbin
par Daniel Proulx
6 décembre 2011 à 14h30

Résumé 
Il s’agit de tenter une percée dans la conscience sophianique de Henry Corbin et de se demander pourquoi la figure de la Sophia apparaît dans presque tous ses textes. Ève, Daêna, Fatima, Madonna Intelligenza, la Vierge-Mère, le féminin-créateur, la shekinah, l’Ange tutélaire, les Fravartis ne sont que quelques unes des dénominations de la figure de la Sophia. Mais qui est Sophia? Et quel est son rôle dans l’amour que porte Henry Corbin à la Sagesse? Aborder cette question fera ressortir deux éléments. Le premier est contextuel à la pensée de Henry Corbin. Il mettra en lumière la source de la sophianité dans son œuvre, à savoir l’influence de l’orthodoxie de Berdiaev et de Boulgakov. Une influence qui semble immensément plus importante que celle d’Heidegger par exemple. Le deuxième élément conduira au cœur du problème du Paradoxe du monothéisme. Ce recueil, qui constitue peut-être l’éthos de sa philosophie, propose de renouer avec son ange, avec son partenaire céleste pour résoudre le problème métaphysique du monothéisme. Ce partenaire céleste, ce témoin dans le Ciel, est-ce Sophia? Il y aura au final à se demander si l’amour de la sagesse explorée par Henry Corbin n’implique pas une théosophie plutôt qu’une philosophie. Selon la perspective corbinienne, la juxtaposition des mots formants le thème de notre colloque « femme, eros et philosophie » impliquent-ils l’ajout d’un niveau de réalité théosophique complémentaire à la philosophie?

Abstract 
This is an attempt to break through the sophianic consciousness of Henry Corbin and ask why the figure of Sophia appears in almost every text. Who is Sophia? And what is its role in Henry Corbin's love of wisdom? Addressing this issue will highlight two points. The first one is contextual to the thought of Henry Corbin. It will highlight the source of the sophianicity in his work, namely the influence of Berdyaev and Bulgakov; an influence that seems to be vastly more important than Heidegger's. The second element will lead to the heart of the problem in The paradox of monotheism. This book, which is perhaps the ethos of his philosophy, proposes to reconnect with angelology to solve the metaphysical problem of monotheism. This celestial partner, this witness in heaven, is it Sophia? Finally it must be asked whether the love of wisdom explored by Henry Corbin involves rather theosophy than philosophy. In Corbin's perspective, does the theme of our conference "Women, eros and philosophy" involve an additional theosophical level of reality complementary to the philosophy?